


Bridge

by mumuinc



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff and Angst, M/M, well as much fluff as you can get out of a Raven!Neil story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 17:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13862460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mumuinc/pseuds/mumuinc
Summary: Jean Moreau is bad at math, but his new roommate is here to help.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written based on the [AU Prompt](http://dailyau.tumblr.com/post/171203487247/i-let-you-cheat-with-my-answers-on-a-test-then) from dailyau: 
> 
> i let you cheat with my answers on a test ; then you got the highest grade possible && now you owe me a HUGE favour AU

It was pretty much common Raven knowledge that Jean Moreau was bad at math. In his freshman year with Kevin and Riko, Jean had done so badly in the core Algebra course all freshmen were required to take that the tutor assigned to him by Student Services advised him to drop the regular math course a month in and take a basic, non-credit course the following term, before taking the core course again. Jean had been so terrified of how the Master would react to a failing grade, but also the fact that there were no other Ravens in the basic course.

 

Of course, that meant there was no way he could take the basic course. Not having another Raven in the same class was a death sentence for a Raven, who could barely run to the toilet without a teammate hanging around to listen to them take a piss. Going to class alone and sitting there with all of these other regular students who didn’t understand the demands on the Exy student athlete in Edgar Allan was just the kind of bullshit reasoning that could get a player kicked off the team.

 

Jean knew there was probably no way in hell he would ever be removed from the team lineup considering his relationship with Riko and Coach Moriyama (oh were he only so lucky!) but there was also no way he would graduate if he kept flunking Core Math. And besides, there was no way his ego could take a failing grade.

 

So in his first year, he dropped Core Math and decided to put it off his mind indefinitely in favor of more immediate and important things. It wasn’t like getting a passable grade in Algebra was going to get him out of the coveted number 3 spot in Riko’s Perfect Court, and some grade in a course not even tangentially connected to the Raven group major in History (who in hell chose History anyway? It was so boring, but Jean was never going to admit that out loud) wasn’t going to ensure his survival in the brutal hierarchy of the Nest.

 

He thought he would probably never have to think about Math again, given how precarious his life in the Nest always seemed to be, with Riko slowly descending into a madness no one, not even his constant shadow, Kevin, could quite explain, until Nathaniel finally joined the Raven ranks in Jean’s third year.

 

The red-haired freshman was a pest: Jean and Kevin knew of him because he hung around the Nest during his school breaks, and he trained with them since his parents left him with the Master when he was nine. As a child, he’d been belligerent and obnoxious, and there was something terrifyingly unnerving when he once stared back at Jean with that cold glittering gaze that Jean found too knowing and worldly for one so young. He’d mentally chided himself with the thought: of course Nathaniel would look like that. All circumstances pointed to the fact that he had probably suffered the same fate as Jean had when his parents sold his life to the Moriyamas to deal with as they saw fit.

 

He wouldn’t get that confirmation until Nathaniel arrived his first day in summer season in Jean’s room, the number 4 freshly tattooed on his cheek as he casually strode in and dumped his gear on the empty spare bed. Jean’s former roommate had dropped out in the middle of spring term, when the rigors of training and the bloodthirstiness of the Raven hierarchy finally became too much for the poor soul. Jean had long-standing nightmares for weeks since, having to sleep alone in the room. The nightmares had only just begun to taper off into something a bit more manageable when this five-foot-three menace of a boy waltzed in as if he owned the place.

 

Riko and Kevin followed not long after, Riko looking smug and Kevin, long-suffering. Jean wondered if the self-satisfied smirk on Riko’s face had anything to do with the blossoming black-eye Nathaniel was sporting. The boy’s split lip was rather unbecoming for a face that could really only be described as pretty. He wondered how the kid would survive in the Nest with a face like that and, not for the first time, Jean imagined what it must be like to have that virtual target transferred from his back into this new recruit’s.

 

“He’s finally earned his place in the team officially,” Riko explained. Jean carefully schooled his face to show as little reaction as he possibly could as Nathaniel stomped around the room to get settled in. “We’ve just gotten him welcomed into our fold, so be nice, Jean.”

 

Jean managed to suppress the shudder Kevin didn’t quite succeed at. “Okay.” His voice sounded suspiciously hollow in his own ears, but Riko’s indifferent stare meant he probably succeeded in sounding even. Nathaniel didn’t even look at him, and Jean couldn’t help noticing the boy had a slight limp in his gait.

 

Riko stared at the two of them a beat longer before he shrugged and made for the door, throwing behind his shoulder, “He’s your problem now.”

 

Kevin watched silently as Nathaniel moved around the room to put his things away before he sighed, nodded to Jean, and backed out after Riko. Nathaniel kicked the door closed in his face before he went back to cleaning up. His cheeks were damp and his eyes red-rimmed as he slowly put his racquet and gear away.

 

Jean hesitated before he opened his mouth. He’d been on the receiving end of Riko’s brand of hazing before and it hadn’t been pretty. He didn’t want to pry, but he was too painfully aware of the kind of viciousness Riko found amusing to inflict, especially to players beholden to his family.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

Nathaniel did not look up from where he was struggling with the sheets of his single mattress. He was quiet a moment as he worked, and once his sheets resolved into a semblance of order, he stood motionless with his back to Jean before he finally shrugged. “I’m fine.”

 

Jean noted the other boy passed a hand over his face before he fled to the bathroom to sort through his toiletries, and decided to let him be. He knew the signs of a breakdown better spent in solitude rather than with someone the kid barely knew. There was plenty of time to get to know his new roommate and Raven partner anyway. After all, as with all partners, Nathaniel’s success would be Jean’s too.

 

* * *

  


Nathaniel continued to keep to himself as the fall season started. Though they were a numbered pair, the other boy avoided Jean like the plague outside of Raven practice hours. It wasn’t a lot of free time, but even going to his classes, the other boy never walked with Jean, though their schedules coincided perfectly. Jean supposed he may be hanging around the other freshmen drafts until he ran into him once on the way to the dean’s office.

 

Nathaniel was alone. Jean hadn’t seen him outside his Exy gear and he couldn’t recall when, during practice, anyone may have hit him in the face, but he was sporting another split lip and on the skin just under his left cheekbone, where his tattoo was, bloomed an ugly healing bruise, the yellow-green of which clashed horribly with his auburn hair. Nathaniel was so lost in thought he didn’t see Jean approach until his nose almost collided with Jean’s chest and he started, and reeled back a few steps to be able to look him in the eye.

 

“Oh, it’s you,” he muttered glumly.

 

Jean frowned. “Why are you alone? Shouldn’t you be in English 103 with the other freshmen?”

 

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes. “One cut isn’t going to land me an F. We’re allowed nine cuts on an MWF schedule, or didn’t you know?”

 

Jean scowled back, annoyed at the sass. Who did this little shit think he is? “I’m perfectly aware but you may not be, of the team policy not to cut class except in the case of a real injury.” He gestured at Nathaniel’s bruised face. “That is not an injury.”

 

“Tough shit,” Nathaniel retorted. “Are you going to report me to the Master? And anyway, I could ask you the same question. As I recall from Kevin’s class sheet, you’re supposed to be in American History 2.”

 

Jean couldn’t quite suppress the flush of shame that sprang to his pale cheeks as he thought of the innocuous piece of paper tucked between the pages of the pile of history books in his arms that explained the reason why he wasn’t in class with Riko, Kevin and the other third years.

 

“I’m… trying to get a class moved to a different schedule.”

 

Nathaniel frowned. “Why? Aren’t all our classes pre-arranged so they didn’t interfere with practice?”

 

Jean pursed his lips, unwilling to let slip that Admissions had finally signed him onto Basic Math when he wouldn’t sign up for it himself. “Well, why are _you_ here, when you’re supposed to be in class too?”

 

In answer, Nathaniel reached into the slim black messenger bag that housed his notebooks and stray papers of photocopied lectures, and pulled out another sheet of paper that may have begun its pompous life as an officious university correspondence but had obviously been folded and crumpled and fingered in frustration over and over with clammy hands that it looked about a heartbeat from completely disintegrating in Nathaniel’s hands as he tugged it free from the riot of other papers in his bag. Jean recognized it immediately as he had an identical, officious looking letter hiding his academic shame between his books too.

 

“I’ve been placed on the Basic Math course. I’ve been trying, for the past two weeks, to get it moved to another class.”

 

Jean tried his best not to sound too defensive. He was an athlete after all, and everyone knew the sports scholarship kids of Castle Evermore weren’t handpicked by the Master for their scintillating academic record. “Why? I’m sure some of the other freshmen are on the course too. Maybe your math grades from high school just aren’t up to par.”

 

Nathaniel rolled his eyes. “None of them are; I asked. How do you think I got the black eye?”

 

Jean thought it prudent not to point out that the other freshmen Ravens probably beat the shit out of Nathaniel because he was a complete wise-ass to everyone, Raven freshmen or no. It was probably a rhetorical question.

 

“Anyway,” Nathaniel went on, “I’m hardly ‘bad’ at Math seeing as how it’s my fucking major.”

 

Oh. Jean frowned and chewed his lip thoughtfully. Well. That was… surprising. “Let me see your class schedule.”

 

Nathaniel rolled his eyes again, but obligingly rummaged through his bag for another piece of crumpled paper and impatiently handed it over. Jean scanned the schedule quickly, still chewing his lip. Nathaniel’s schedule blocked Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour and a half beginning 10:30AM. It was the same exact block Jean had for Basic Math. Oh, indeed.

 

“Well? Can I get my class notice back? I still have to find someone not an incompetent nincompoop in this office to put me in Advanced Calculus with the rest of the other math majors.”

 

Jean sighed inwardly and debated for a moment whether he really wanted to disclose his Basic Math nomination, and at his third year, no less. He’d already gotten a lot of grief over it, not just from the other Ravens, but from the Master himself, for completely disrupting planned schedules for the team. Quite possibly, he’d just been lucky Nathaniel hadn’t shown up for the first week of classes, or he would’ve seen how Jean foundered even on the most basic points of algebra.

 

But really, the kid deserved to at least know why he was being dragged through this useless course for an entire semester. If he over-cut because he couldn’t be bothered to attend a class he found a nuisance, the Master wouldn’t be happy in the least, and hadn’t Jean convinced himself that Nathaniel’s success was also his? So wouldn’t it be in his best interest to just tell the kid about his predicament, so that he’d stick the course through with Jean, so both of them could stay out of trouble?

 

There was no point in asking Nathaniel not to laugh and Jean wasn’t keen on prolonging his own agony at the inevitable ribbing he would get, so he ripped the Dean’s letter on the Basic Math nomination and unceremoniously handed it over. Nathaniel scanned the paper and sighed.

 

“So you’re the reason I’m in this course? ‘Cause we’re partners and all that psychotic Raven jazz about not being alone and always flocking in groups? What are we, high school cheerleaders? Can’t go to the toilet unless someone’s there to hold our handbags?” At Jean’s blank expression, he rolled his eyes. “God, never mind. I forgot you don’t do pop culture references.”

 

“What?”

 

“I asked Kevin. He said you don’t watch movies, and seeing as how we both don’t have the normal American dream lifestyle, I get that you probably know nothing about being a normal person.”

 

Jean folded his arms and glared. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

 

“Nothing, alright!” Nathaniel exclaimed defensively. “Well, it doesn’t look like there’s any way I’m getting out of this course now, is there? Why are you even taking it in your third year? Shouldn’t you have sat through this in your first year like the rest of the normal school population?”

 

Jean was too ashamed to admit that he’d let the incessant bullying in the Nest get to him so he pressed his lips tersely and refused to answer. Nathaniel sighed.

 

“God, fine. Never mind I asked. I guess we’re both stuck in this stupid course for the rest of the term. It doesn’t even carry any credit. Fucking useless.” He stuffed his papers back into his bag and made for the exit, then stopped and huffed when he realized Jean wasn’t following him out.

 

“What? There’s no point in us being here anymore since no one in this building can get us into the classes we actually want, is there?”

 

Jean chewed his lip again. It was a nervous tick he really needed to get rid of. He was already bedraggled from the crazy team structure of the Ravens and there was really no need to make it worse by constantly worrying his mouth. But he wasn’t sure if he really should be giving Nathaniel any false hope of an out if Jean couldn’t make it out of Basic himself. In the end, he decided Nathaniel would find out anyway, so it was better he killed whatever hope he had now than later.

 

“The Math Department holds diagnostic exams for those in Basic at the start of the semester. I guess if we get a good grade, I can get back on the regular course, and you’d be moved to the Calculus one.” He shook his head. “But that’s on the condition both of us pass, and I think we’ve already established that I’m just not good at this.”

 

Nathaniel stopped his impatient fidgeting and narrowed his eyes again, a gleam in the ice blue of his gaze making Jean shiver involuntarily. “Really. How often have you gone to Math this week?”

 

“Just the one time when the teacher announced it. I’ve been trying to get the course dropped since then.”

 

“Oh,” Nathaniel said, a slow smile blossoming in his pretty features, nearly cancelling out the ugly bruise on his cheek. Again, Jean wondered if the kid would ever survive five years of living in the Nest looking like that. “Good.”

 

And then there was no more to be said because their cut period had ended and it was time to get back to the court for mid-morning practice.

 

* * *

  


The next day, Nathaniel dragged Jean to cut Basic Math. They’d walked to class with Riko and Kevin, who had been headed to a language class in the same building. Jean would have been in the same class if he’d only managed to pass regular math in his first year. Nathaniel waited until Riko and Kevin were safely ensconced in their classroom before doing a quick about-face from the one he and Jean had been headed to and dashed away, but not before grabbing Jean’s wrist and dragging him along. Any protests he made fell on deaf ears as Nathaniel deftly maneuvered them away from the steady stream of students rushing to their next class. Nathaniel didn’t let go until they reached a secluded part of the campus park and shoved Jean on a bench.

 

Jean sighed as he obligingly sat down. “You know, I get that we agreed yesterday to take the diagnostic test, but I really need to be in that class if I want to have any hope of getting a 75 on that test, or even getting by once I’m on regular math.”

 

Nathaniel waved his concern away. “You’re not going to need that when you have me.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

The other boy looked at him patiently as if he were stupid. “Kevin told me even if we passed, I’d still have to be on regular math with you, since no one’s in Calculus this semester. So it doesn’t matter if we show up to class or not.”

 

“For you, maybe,” Jean muttered. “The rest of us normal people have to actually study to get decent math grades.”

 

Nathaniel snorted. “Well, I’m here and I’m your partner and your roommate, so stop worrying your pretty head and just enjoy the fucking sunshine like a normal person.”

 

Jean looked at Nathaniel strangely. There had to be a first for everything, but he knew with how he looked, always ready for a fight, dour and raring for solitude, eyes constantly jumping at shadows, and his nose slightly crooked from Riko breaking it twice in his first year, he wasn’t really the kind of person anyone would call ‘pretty’. He shook his head at Nathaniel and settled his book bag on the grass, pulling out a notebook to review for his next class. There was no point in returning to the Nest during class hours—the other Ravens who didn’t have class at their schedule would just find out they’d ditched and it would just open another ugly conversation Jean would really like to avoid.

 

Nathaniel stretched out on the bench beside him and lay his head on his lap before Jean could put his notebook down so he could start studying. He froze. Nathaniel didn’t appear to notice; he’d already closed his eyes and was smiling nonsensically at the sunshine warming his tan cheeks.

 

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded. He couldn’t move—Nathaniel’s head was a warm weight on his thighs and the heat from the back of his neck seeped through the fabric of Jean’s jeans, making his skin prickle.

 

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m taking a nap in the sunshine. I hope you realize we live underground like mole rats and sunlight is a fucking luxury we’re not getting like the rest of the normal world.”

 

Jean hazarded a glance down at him again, but Nathaniel had already relaxed, his breathing starting to slow. Jean wanted to say that that wasn’t what he meant but he wasn’t sure he wanted to shatter the peaceful look on the other boy’s face. Nathaniel shifted a bit on his side and folded his legs n so they weren’t dangling off the edge of the bench. Jean wasn’t sure it was the best ides as it put Nathaniel’s face directly to his crotch and the sight of that was doing strange things he didn’t really want to think about to his pulse. He couldn’t move, could scarcely breathe.

 

“Wake me up before next period, okay?” Nathaniel mumbled sleepily, before squirming against Jean again and finally settling and dropping off to sleep.

 

“Yeah,” Jean answered, voice strained. He could feel the tickle of Nathaniel’s breath against the his stomach, warm over the fabric of his shirt. It was doing something to the pit of his stomach and Jean couldn’t decide if it was dreadful or wonderful.

 

For the rest of the time, he tried not to spend creepily watching his roommate and partner sleep as the sounds of the rest of the campus filtered muted and distant through the trees of the empty park. Needless to say, he didn’t manage to get any studying done.

 

* * *

  


It became a ritual for them for the time leading up to the week of the exam. Every schedule of their Basic Math class, they would walk with Riko or Kevin or any of the other Ravens, and then once rid of the unwanted company, the two of them would do a complete about face and scurry off to the park. Most times, Jean tried (and failed) to study, whether for math or for any of his other classes. Nathaniel spent the cut period either napping in a patch of sunlight, head pillowed on Jean’s lap, or dicking around with the Exy racquet he sometimes brought to class. At the end of the period, Jean would pack the notes he’d failed to read because he’d be so drawn to watching Nathaniel (and silently hating himself for feeling like a complete creep) and the two of them would walk back to Castle Evermore together for practice.

 

The mornings spent during these cuts were a peaceful time, and Jean realized he was finally getting to know his roommate better than all the time they spent on court together. He learned that Nathaniel had been with Riko, Kevin and the Master for far longer than he had, having been turned over by his father at eight years old (Jean had been fifteen when he arrived in America), and for the longest time until Jean appeared, had served as Riko’s punching bag whenever things didn’t go his way. Things were especially tense because he’d struck a close friendship with Kevin, whose attention and presence Riko guarded jealously to the exclusion of all others. It was worse when Jean arrived because Riko felt he was suddenly fighting for his brother’s attention on two different fronts, and Nathaniel had initially resented Jean’s presence, mistakenly thinking him to be the reason Kevin could no longer spend time with him, until he started at Edgar Allan and realized Riko was the one running the show. He’d warmed to Jean’s presence more easily than Jean would have attributed to someone who shared his background and anger. But maybe it was exactly that shared history that drew the two of them together.

 

And it wasn’t just on a personal level that they worked well after spending so much time together. Jean knew in Class 1 Exy, he was probably the best backliner there was. The Ravens weren’t undefeated champions for nothing, Kevin and Riko’s personal best scores notwithstanding. Nathaniel was small and nimble for a backliner, but his speed combined with Jean’s size and aggression made them an unstoppable force on the practice court that earned even Riko’s grudging admiration.

 

And because of their twin successes on the court, Jean escaped plenty of Riko’s arbitrary punishments whenever the rest of the team performed badly. It wasn’t much but it was enough to give him hope that maybe he would actually make it alive to even graduate from Edgar Allan, to a life free from Riko’s mad presence.

 

He probably should have spent his hopes on better things than Riko’s unstable, mercurial temper.

 

Two days before their first game of the season, Nathaniel was late for evening practice. He hadn’t gone back to the Nest like he normally would at the end of his afternoon class and Jean had spent the last half hour leading up to practice frantically texting him to beg him to show up.

 

“Where the hell is he?” Kevin hissed as Riko irritably called the practice to a start. Riko waited for no one to drive everyone ragged on the court.

 

Jean’s heart was in his throat as he went through the motions of warm-up. If Nathaniel didn’t show up within the next half hour mark, Riko would completely lose his shit. No one was allowed to be late, least of all the three members of his Perfect Court.

 

“I don’t know. He didn’t come back from class,” he muttered back in French over the sound of the freshmen recruits grunting as Riko proceeded to run the whole team ragged through practice drills. Jean went through the drills mechanically, lost in thought over his missing partner, and worried over what Riko might do to him once he finally showed up. He performed poorly on the drills, so distracted was he by Nathaniel’s uncharacteristic disappearance. Kevin threw him a baleful look to get his shit together before Riko decided to include him in whatever sadistic punishment he’d planned for Nathaniel.

 

Nathaniel didn’t show up for the rest of the nighttime practice and Riko ran the team into the ground, ending just after midnight, and then leaving the court for Jean to clean up alone in spite of his protesting muscles.

 

He’d just finished gathering all of the used balls into a bin when the sound of footsteps dragging on hardwood made him look up from his task. Nathaniel walked over from the court doors to where Jean stood. Well, ‘walking’ was a bit generous as the other boy sported a very pronounced limp. Jean didn’t care. He was beyond pissed.

 

“Where the fuck were you?” He didn’t bother keeping the resentment out of his voice. He was stuck on clean-up duty _because_ Nathaniel hadn’t shown up.

 

“Nowhere,” Nathaniel replied, and he could taste the lie like bile in his mouth. “Need any help with that?”

 

Jean snorted. “Quit standing around and make yourself useful.”

 

They didn’t talk as they finished cleaning up the court, and it was only when they were done and had retreated to the locker rooms for Jean to shower that he noticed the bruises on the other boy’s arm. That coupled with the very pronounced limp in Nathaniel’s gait brought Jean’s worries back full force.

 

“What happened to you?” he demanded as Nathaniel let him inspect the blooming bruises on his arms.

 

“Nothing,” was the sullen reply. “I’m fine.”

 

Resisting the urge to bang his head against the lockers, Jean went to check that the only bruising Nathaniel had were the ones on his arms. Of course, that was never the case if anyone missed practice. In all likelihood, Nathaniel encountered the Master on his way to Court.

 

“This is not fine. I know the Master expects us to be able to play unless we’re actually on the brink of death, and maybe not even then, but these are going to affect your swing when they start to hurt and we have a game on Friday. So stop pretending you’re okay and get your shit together.”

 

Nathaniel watched in a kind of stupefied daze as Jean rummaged through his locker for cooling creams to make the swell of the worst bruising go down. When Nathaniel didn’t move to take the jar from him, he started slathering the cream on his arms himself. A cursory check under the other boy’s shirt revealed that the worst of the bruises were on his ribs. There was only so much cream to go around, and that wasn’t even the worst of it. Nathaniel’s chest and back were littered with scars too gruesome for Jean, who had always taken the brunt of Riko’s sadism, to even contemplate. He tried to avoid touching them but there were so many, it was impossible not to touch the scarring to get the cooling cream on his bruises, and Nathaniel flinched every time his fingers brushed on scar tissue.

 

“Sorry,” he muttered, drawing back. “I didn’t mean to—”

 

Nathaniel caught his hand just as he was retreating. “No. I mean—” His voice wavered as if he suddenly couldn’t quite push air out of his lungs. “Why are you nice to me? No one is ever nice to me. Not even Kevin, and I’ve known him a long time.”

 

Jean pursed his lips against the sudden absurd thoughts that threatened to bubble out of his throat. He knew and accepted that he hadn’t lived an idyllic childhood—hell, his parents had sold him to the Moriyamas to settle a gambling debt, but he’d never seen melancholy quite like this scarred, lonely, beautiful boy.

 

“We’re partners, Nathaniel. Three and Four. If we didn’t take care of each other, who will?”

 

Nathaniel didn’t seem to have an answer to that and he lapsed back into silence and allowed Jean to finish his task. The jar of cooling cream was almost empty by the time he was done and Nathaniel still seemed to be out of sorts, so he sat him down on a bench and left to take his shower. When he was done, Nathaniel was still sitting where he’d left him, contemplating his hands.

 

“Hey.” He sat next to him and took the slack fingers into his much larger palms. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

 

It was a beat before Nathaniel replied but it wasn’t an answer to Jean’s question. “Are we friends? Is that what we are?”

 

Jean wasn’t sure friendship or any kind of relationship besides mutual hatred and mutual desire to win was something that could survive the Nest but he wasn’t the kind of monster who would deny a question like that. “I guess we are.” He tried to smile but the expression felt tight in his face. “Come on, we can continue being friends outside of this stinking locker room. I’m wiped.”

 

The smile that answered him as Nathaniel allowed him to pull him to his feet was the kind Jean knew he would protect from the crass darkness of this mutual nightmare. It was small, but genuine, amiable and true, and it lit the way out into the dark lonely corridors of their tomb-like home.

 

* * *

 

His schedule for the math diagnostic exam was on the morning of their first game of the season. Jean fairly buzzed with nervous energy as he walked with some of the team’s seniors to the lecture hall in the Math Department building. The list of students signed up for the day’s exam was posted next to the lecture hall doors and Jean absently scanned for his name to sign his attendance before strolling in.

 

He was jittery still: anything related to the dreaded math class made him nervous, even more so than the day’s upcoming game where, at least, he was sure he would do exceptionally well. Maybe nothing more than his pride hung on the outcome of this exam, after all, only he and Nathaniel knew he was sitting for it, but he couldn’t get away from the feeling that something drastic was about to happen. That didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in his ability to pass the stupid test, even though he’d been studying like mad for it with Nathaniel since they’d signed on.

 

He got to the last page of the attendance and realized his name wasn’t on the list. Shit. He couldn’t have forgotten to sign for the test—

 

He stood in the corridor having a minor breakdown over what may possibly be for the first time not about Riko or Exy, until he realized the exam proctor was standing at the door smiling at him.

 

“Hello! Can I help you with anything?”

 

Jean stood, rooted to the spot, brain melting for a moment before he realized he was asked a question. “I’m supposed to be on today’s exam schedule but I’m not.”

 

The proctor, a chipper-looking young woman in her mid-twenties with fly-away sand-colored hair and a southern twang to her speech smiled kindly. “Oh, don’t worry, we get that sometimes. I could look you up in the overall test schedule sign-ups so you can come back at the right schedule, if you want.”

 

Jean nodded dumbly and followed the proctor into the room. There were already a few students, nervously reviewing their notes, seated around the lecture hall. He recognized one or two faces from the one time he did attend the class and prayed they didn’t recognize him.

 

“Can I get your student ID and last name?”

 

He rattled off the information mindlessly, futilely trying to keep himself as small and inconspicuous as being six three and standing like a tree in front of the hall could permit while the proctor looked for his sign-up in the pile of names she had on the lecturer’s desk.

 

“Moreau from the Ravens, right? I should’ve recognized you earlier from the number 3. I’m a fan! Let’s see… this says you already sat for this test on Wednesday at 9pm, last schedule we had.”

 

“I did?” Had he somehow entered another dimension where he could split his body into two and sat for the exam while running himself ragged in practice? Because he was definitely at night practice on Wednesday. In fact, that was the day Riko thoroughly trounced the team’s collective ass for Nathaniel’s absence—shit.

 

“Uh, can you also check for a friend of mine? We were supposed to take the test together today.” The lie felt heavy on his tongue. He had no idea when Nathaniel’s actual schedule was; the other boy had refused to tell him.

 

“Sure, do you have his last name or student ID?”

 

Jean parroted off information he’d managed to glean over months of being Nathaniel’s roommate and bit his lip. The proctor took a minute to rifle through her list again before she exclaimed excitedly.

 

“It says here he sat for the test the same time you did.” Shit. _Shit_. “Mr. Moreau, are you sure you’re alright? I know the upcoming game must be stressing you out and you mustn’t let this test affect you…”

 

She continued to blather on and Jean waved her concern away as more students piled into the room. “I have to go. I have to—the game…”

 

He didn’t finish the thought and bolted. It was one thing for Nathaniel to miss practice and get beaten up for it, but entirely another thing to have cheated a test for Jean. And it was one thing to have duped an unsuspecting Math Department, but if the Master found out, if Riko found out… Jean suddenly felt like he was abruptly going to be very sick.

  


Jean didn’t see Nathaniel again until he’d made it through his class day and was standing in the Ravens’ locker room, getting geared for the game. Above them, the thunderous sound of fifty thousand fans thronging to the stadium, cheering, stamping their feet, impatient for the spectacle their Raven champions promised to deliver. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to confront Nathaniel in a crowded locker room where every hawk-eared Raven listened for anything, any shred of gossip to bring each other down, and potentially destroy their lives.

 

He got his chance minutes before starting serve as the starting line-up filed into the court. The cacophony of screaming fans provided the perfect cover for the conversation as Riko and Kevin took their places half a court away from them.

 

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

 

Nathaniel shrugged off the hand on his arm nonchalantly, blue eyes glittering a challenge to Jean from behind the grille of his helmet. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

“You—!” He didn’t get a chance to tell the other boy not to lie, not to him anyway, not the least bit because they’d agreed they were friends, but the starting buzzer drowned out whatever he’d been about to say. Jean glared at his partner balefully and banged his shoulder. “We’re not done with this.”

 

The game got underway. Jean’s mind wasn’t on the game but on his partner weaving through the much larger strikers of the Binghamton Bearcats. At one point, he nearly missed an easy intercept if Nathaniel hadn’t yelled at him to get into the game or die. Jean slammed into the striker and took control of the ball, seamlessly passing to Riko to set him up for his next play, and easily saving himself from a potential meltdown post-game.

 

They won, of course, and Jean escaped torment, thanks to Nathaniel’s abrasive but quick thinking. Once again, they were the last pair to leave the locker rooms, Nathaniel insisting to wait until everyone had left before he took to the showers. Jean didn’t understand why he was so reticent until he emerged from the cloud of steam, towel hanging off rangy hips. The battlefield of scars on his body, which Jean had only glimpsed when he’d help with the cooling cream, was something he was sure not even Riko was capable of inflicting.

 

Nathaniel wouldn’t meet his gaze as he dressed in the heavy silence and Jean momentarily forgot his anger as the two of them warily orbited each other. When he was dressed, Nathaniel sat on a bench and looked up as Jean restlessly tugged at the strings of his racquet. The rest of the team had probably left campus by now to celebrate their first win of the season. They would be alone in the Nest.

 

“You know, I’m not sorry for taking the test in your place,” Nathaniel muttered, staring off into space. Jean forgot about his racquet too and left it carelessly propped against a locker door in favor of sitting next to his partner. Nathaniel clearly had a lot of issues to work through, and against his better judgement, Jean wanted to know what they were so he could help. Maybe. They were friends after all.

 

“Two Ravens, one stone?” he asked quietly.

 

Nathaniel stared at him incredulously. “That’s the shittiest metaphor I’ve ever heard for a relationship as fucked up as ours.”

 

Jean snorted. He was an athlete—people could forgive him for absurd turns of phrase. He started to stand so they could both get back to their room, but Nathaniel grabbed his sleeve and pulled him close. Jean stiffened as the other boy clung to him, silently needy and drinking up whatever scraps of attention he was going to spare. Empathy wasn’t a language Jean Moreau was well-versed in, but maybe for Nathaniel, he could try to speak it.

 

The hug he returned was slow and awkward and all full of ungainly limbs and sharp angles, but Nathaniel clung to the fabric of his shirt desperately, and the only thing Jean could manage was to whisper, “Sshh, I’m here,” over and over.

 

He didn’t know if it was enough. It usually never was, but this time, he kept hoping it would be.

 

* * *

 

“Moreau!”

 

The corridor was crowded and it took Jean the better part of a minute to search out Lydia Johnson’s strawberry curls in the throng of students hustling to their next class. Lydia wasn’t a Raven but she may as well have been one with how often she hung around at Evermore. For a while, everyone thought she was Riko’s girlfriend, but then Kevin slept with her too, and Jean couldn’t be arsed to figure out relationship and power dynamics among the other Ravens and their conquests, so she just became known in his head as that girl before Thea. Kevin had made it clear he wasn’t interested in her but that hadn’t deterred Lydia from continuing to harangue him and hang around the team, probably hoping a round two with number Two. God would only understand why; Kevin was insufferable and quite frankly, not even that good in bed—and Jean would know since Ravens fucked each other all the time, and Kevin had to be Jean’s only partner where Jean had actually been a willing participant.

 

In any case, Lydia was an annoying hanger-on he wasn’t particularly keen to talk to, especially when it looked like she was Raven hunting, and Jean had been in her sights since they shared the disaster of Jean’s first year math class. He wasn’t interested in Riko and Kevin’s groupies, and even less so in girls in general.

 

“What do you want, Lydia?” His bored tone could have frozen the Sahara but Lydia Johnson was nothing if not persistent.

 

“The Math Department’s just posted the results of the diag exam. I thought you said you were bad at math.”

 

Jean rolled his eyes. Lydia had been one of the people he personally knew that had witnessed the nightmare of his freshman math. “You were there in first year; you tell me.”

 

Undeterred, Lydia slipped her arm around his and hung on like a limpet. “You never said you got so much better at it. And I do love me some hot athletes with secret mad academic skills. You’re at the top of all the examinees and the Math Dept’s putting you and Wesninski to Math 21.”

 

She couldn’t have managed to dumbfound him if she’d actually said Riko was gone and he was free of his Moriyama slavery. Math 21 was Advanced Calculus, Nathaniel’s target class. “Wait, what?”

 

Lydia didn’t get a chance to elaborate as a pair of hands suddenly wedged between them and scissored them away from each other, and before Jean could understand what the hell was going on, Nathaniel was now the one hanging off his arm like a limpet and lydia was five feet away.

 

“Hey, Johnson, I think tall, dark and dour number 2 is looking for you, and I’ll appreciate you getting your hands off my boyfriend.”

 

Jean was fairly certain he’d been knocked out in morning practice and woken up in some fucked up Twilight Zone where Nathaniel had just referred to him as his fucking boyfriend. “Uh, what?”

 

Nathaniel wasted no time steering him into the thick of the crowd, throwing a cheerful, “Bye, Lydia!” behind them at Lydia’s thunderstruck face. He grinned saucily at Jean and the two of them quickly made their escape.

 

They were breathless with laughter and the exertion of the quick sprint from campus back into the Nest before Kevin found out Nathaniel had actually sent his most dreaded groupie his way.

 

“Oh my God! You should’ve seen your face when she told you you were going to Math 21!” Nathaniel laughed as he flung himself merrily into his bed, rolling around with undisguised mirth.

 

Jean didn’t think sitting through an advanced mathematics class two hours a day was particularly hilarious but Nathaniel’s laughter was contagious. “I can’t believe you told her you’re my boyfriend. We’re so dead.”

 

Nathaniel’s eyes glittered with something Jean couldn’t name. “Maybe. But we’d be awesome dead Ravens if we were.”

 

Jean rolled his eyes. “How am I going to survive six units of advanced calculus this sem? I can barely find x!”

 

Nathaniel sobered at that and sat up in his bed, but the tiny self-satisfied smile never left his face. “Hey, but that’s what I’m here for, all right? We’re partners. I’m not going to let you fail. Speaking of which, that’s the third time I saved your ass in this team. You owe me.”

 

“I owe you shit. I didn’t ask for your help, in case you’ve forgotten. How’d you even do it? I was so sure I signed up the day of the game.”

 

Nathaniel shrugged. “The Math Department doesn’t watch the exam sign-ups. It just took a bit of creative persuasion to get your schedule moved the same as mine so I could take the test twice. Took me a bit longer than I normally would answering two test papers and making sure the handwriting wasn’t the same and our answers weren’t exact to each other. Anyway, you’d be surprised how much people are willing to overlook with athletes.”

 

“I thought people would’ve recognized you.”

 

“I came with a decoy you, of course. What kind of idiot would mistake the two of us for the same person? Anyway, come on, you owe me.”

 

Jean debated throwing him out but Nathaniel was right: he did. Still, he wasn’t going to make it easy on him. After all, he didn’t ask for whatever help Nathaniel had secretly given him.

 

Nathaniel scrunched his face up petulantly when he refused to answer. He looked like a child. “Please, Jean…”

 

“Fine! What do you want?” How he manage to get himself weaseled into such shit, Jean would never understand. (Secretly, he wondered if it had to do anything with Nathaniel’s bright blue eyes, staring at him like he was the world.)

 

“Just… one date, Jean.”

 

“Date?!” Jesus Christ, this really was the Twilight Zone!

 

“Well, yeah. I don’t get my ass handed to me for missing practice so I can take two exams in one day if I didn’t like you, asshole.”

 

Jean rolled his eyes but clearly unable to hide his surprise at the declaration. “You’re a pest and a menace, Nathaniel Wesninski. I don’t know why I put up with you.”

 

Nathaniel only grinned. “Hey, I’m a fucking national treasure. Also, _you_ like me.”

 

Jean shook his head but didn’t suppress the smile that blossomed in his face. Yes, maybe he did, as fucked up as attraction could go in the Nest anyway. And that was all right.

 

“Come on,” Nathaniel whined, tugging at his hand. “I want you to take me out for Thai food!”

 

That was all right too. Life in the Nest wasn’t the most ideal outcome of Jean’s sad life, but in the grand scheme of things, there were all these little points of light that Jean could cling to in order to forge on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nathaniel’s line “Are we friends? Is that what we are?” is from Captive Prince, which I whined at length about, and then ended up thoroughly enjoying.


	2. Bridge - Deleted Scene

Kevin Day sat in the gym alone, feeling annoyed and perplexed. He thought he’d been doing a great job in the past year avoiding having to talk to Lydia Johnson since Thea graduated and he wasn’t quite sure how she found him and Riko in their tutoring session in one of the private rooms in the library, but she had and she did, and she proceeded to be such a thoroughly annoying distraction that Kevin suggested to the poor exasperated teaching assistant that they reconvene in the evening before night practice instead. 

 

Of course, Lydia decided she could then invite herself to Kevin and Riko’s lunch. That wouldn’t have been such a bad thing to sit through: Kevin wasn’t sure what it was but Riko sometimes gave himself over to distraction where girls he liked were concerned, so Kevin was able to eat in peace, and when Lydia showed no sign of leaving, he took it as the perfect out to steal away from Riko’s company. He and Jean had plans that afternoon to do a classical history review of North Africa’s influence in Greek and Macedonian culture, but it had already been fifteen minutes that he’d been waiting at the gym where he and Jean liked to pretend they were getting workouts in, but in reality were geeking out over history together, and there was still no sign of Jean.

 

He sent another impatient text in, emphasizing to Jean the importance of an upcoming test on the subject they were supposed to be reviewing, and still nothing. Calls to Jean’s phone rang out into voicemail, and a few quick inquiries with the other resident athletes of the Nest that came in to get a quick workout done on a Saturday told him nothing but that Jean had gone out for lunch with his roommate, but they’d both been back to their room fairly quickly since.

 

Thoroughly irked and not at all fond of being made to wait, he got up from the exercise machine he’d been using as a bench and marched towards Jean and Nathaniel’s room. From outside, he could hear sounds of bodies hitting furniture, and he wondered if it had been the right idea to leave Riko alone. What if he’d gotten to Jean first? From the sound of things, Jean probably wouldn’t be up for reviewing for their test, much less move away from a sick bed if Riko was indeed involved.

 

With mounting dread and trepidation in his heart, and a rare burst of fearlessness in his desire to protect his friend, Kevin burst into the room. For a moment, no one moved. Jean was sprawled on his bed, his black button-up more off him than on. Nathaniel sat on his stomach, hair disheveled and face flushed.

 

And then Kevin’s brain caught up with what he was seeing.

 

“Oh my God! You two?!”

 

Nathaniel catapulted out of the bed and shoved Kevin out of the room with a suggestive, “I’ll thank you later for not cockblocking me,” before the door slammed in his face.

 

Kevin blinked, slightly dazed. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied Riko coming his way and sighed ruefully. Well, at least some people were enjoying their Saturday afternoon.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this AU OOC-ness. I love Kevin here the most! 
> 
> Class tagging is based on my own college experience, including the Basic Math diagnostic test, which I had to take. Test swapping is something I haven’t personally done, but my mom did with PE. XD
> 
> Come yell at me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mumuinc) for more fics.


End file.
